There was a time when suggesting extraterrestrials genetically engineered mankind would get you seated at the weird table at Thanksgiving.
Today, it gets you 22 seasons on the History Channel.
Welcome to modern America, where Moses is suspicious, Genesis is mythology, but a television personality with electrified hair pointing at a stone carving and asking, “Could this be evidence of extraterrestrial genetic engineering?” apparently deserves another commercial break.
And this is where the story gets considerably more interesting than little green men.
Former Church of Satan priest Mark Passio has spent years discussing what he calls the “Interference Theory of Human Origins.” His 2013 presentation Cosmic Abandonment asks whether humans were created by nonhuman beings as a hybrid slave species through genetic modification. Passio later discussed the Anunnaki, human genetic hybridization, the creation of a “primitive worker,” and even the possibility that religion, money and government were inherited from these supposed off-world creators.
That doesn’t prove aliens created anybody.
It doesn’t even prove Passio’s interpretation is correct.
And importantly, it doesn’t establish that this was official Church of Satan doctrine. Passio’s Satanic background and his later ancient-alien theories are documented parts of his story, but connecting those two things into an organized Satanic plot requires evidence we don’t have.
But culturally, something fascinating has happened.
The basic story escaped the UFO convention and moved into America’s living room.
Ancient Aliens premiered as a series in 2009 and has become an extraordinary television survivor. History currently lists 22 seasons and more than 200 episodes. Its recurring premise is that extraterrestrials may have visited Earth in antiquity and influenced human civilization.
And the show hasn’t merely wondered whether Ezekiel saw a flying saucer.
It has gone straight for Genesis.
A 2024 Ancient Aliens: Origins episode titled “Human Genesis” asks whether extraterrestrials might represent evolution’s supposed missing link, whether religious texts contain evidence of intervention, whether clues are embedded in human DNA, and whether extraterrestrials “guided human evolution.” History has also produced compilations devoted specifically to alleged alien-human DNA fusion and hidden extraterrestrial genetic codes.
Think about how bizarre that cultural transformation is.
We didn’t eliminate the creation story.
We gave God a spacesuit.
Instead of “God created man in His image,” the alternative becomes technologically superior beings descended from heaven and modified primitive creatures into intelligent humans.
So apparently Genesis becomes scientifically ridiculous only until we replace God with a laboratory technician from Alpha Centauri.
Then we’re back in business.
The resemblance doesn’t prove the stories have the same origin, but philosophically it is fascinating. Humanity still wants an answer to the oldest questions imaginable: Who made us? Why are we different? Where did consciousness come from? Why are we here?
Modern secular culture didn’t necessarily stop asking religious questions.
Sometimes it simply changed the vocabulary.
Heaven became space.
Angels became extraterrestrials.
Miracles became advanced technology.
Creation became genetic engineering.
And divine visitation became a UFO encounter.
Then something else happened.
UFOs went respectable.
The federal government adopted the less giggle-inducing term “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Congress held hearings, military aviators discussed unexplained encounters, and NASA convened an independent UAP study.
Suddenly the guy talking about strange objects in the sky wasn’t automatically Cousin Eddie wearing aluminum foil.
But here’s the gigantic distinction our culture keeps bulldozing over: unidentified does not mean extraterrestrial.
NASA’s UAP study stated that there is currently no reason to conclude existing UAP reports have an extraterrestrial source, and that peer-reviewed scientific literature contains no conclusive evidence establishing an extraterrestrial origin for UAP.
That’s science.
“I don’t know what that is” is a perfectly legitimate answer.
Somewhere along the way, however, entertainment taught us that “I don’t know” apparently needs background music, a CGI spaceship and Giorgio Tsoukalos staring thoughtfully at a pyramid.
Academics have actually examined this phenomenon. Archaeologist and scholar Shawn Malley described Ancient Aliens as pseudo-archaeological television that combines extraterrestrials, genetic tampering, government conspiracies, ancient civilizations and modern anxieties into a powerful cultural narrative.
And perhaps that’s the real story.
The alien didn’t conquer America with a death ray.
He got syndicated.
After hundreds of episodes, documentaries, podcasts, memes, congressional hearings and UFO videos, the extraterrestrial explanation has become part of our cultural furniture. We may laugh at it, but we recognize the mythology instantly.
None of this proves Passio’s Anunnaki theory.
None of it proves Ancient Aliens.
And it certainly doesn’t prove Satanists secretly invented the UFO movement.
But it does reveal something fascinating about us.
Modern man proudly announced that he had outgrown ancient creation stories.
Then he turned on the television and spent 22 seasons wondering whether beings descended from the heavens, created mankind in their image, gave civilization knowledge and occasionally returned to Earth.
We didn’t quit believing.
We changed the wardrobe.
God was apparently too unbelievable.
So we gave Him a spaceship and some tech. But hey, no rules…
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